


Rescue Me

by carpelucem



Category: Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, rampant use of fairytale language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-22
Updated: 2013-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-26 10:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/649784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carpelucem/pseuds/carpelucem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He never really sleeps, so the Huntsman takes it upon himself to keep night guard duties (especially by the queen's chambers).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rescue Me

**Author's Note:**

> 11/15 - This has now been thoroughly jossed with the arrival of The Huntsman trailer/plot, but such is life.

The new spring has turned to summer and still Eric stalks the halls of the castle, the stone walls echoing the steps he tries to take lightly. The queen would urge him to sleep, if she could see him, to relinquish the guard he keeps so tightly drawn about him, like a cloak against the long winter. And for a brief moment, he would try, if only for her peace of mind and the smile that flickers like a candle flame on her lips when he does. 

But Eric's nights have almost always been restless. Sleep is ever elusive to him, like the wispy clouds in the sky above. 

As a child, he'd borne night terrors, dark shadows chasing him through the forest, nipping at the heels of his boots. His mother had comforted him when he was still small, prayed over him that they'd be taken and he'd rest. As he grew, Eric learned to stay awake at night, to catch the barest hints of sleep and never fall too deep. He discovered quickly after his mother had passed that his screams disturbed the mead-thick fog his father returned to their home in at night, leading to bloodied noses and bruises imprinted on his shoulders and legs. 

When he was old enough to earn a coin, Eric took whatever jobs the villagers would toss his way, scavenging the same forest of his childhood fears for squab and game. He returned to peddle the birds to the innkeepers, tucking the money away in a leather bag that had belonged to his mother, to save for a keep of his own. He escaped to the forest in the last hours of the night, so between skirting his father's wrath and hunting, Eric hadn't time to sleep. 

Sarah was an apple cheeked maid the first time he laid eyes on her, dark hair falling down her back like the water in the stream after the spring thaw. She smiled, a rare beam of sunlight, as he hauled a string of ducks into the back of the butcher shop, offered him a dipper of water from the well behind the grocer when he'd finished his business. She sold vegetables from her garden to help house the family who had moved to the village a few summers hence. He looked forward to the days their paths crossed. Slowly, they exchanged more than smiles, names, and their few words grew to many.

He began to see days as less of a burden and more of a joy. It no longer felt as though he was solitary in the world, the forest and his bow and sword his only companion. Choking down his meal one eve, Sarah's comely face and figure were much debated at the alehouse, the men in their cups boasting of their plans to seize her for their own. Eric tried to ignore the bawdy tales, he knew Sarah wasn't a brazen wench to appeal to their crass tastes but felt the time for action was near. 

After a bountiful autumn, Eric traded his coin with the blackmith for a small keep at the edge of the hamlet, removed from the bustle of the market and with a patch of land for a garden. He approached Sarah's father with a steady voice, bravely offering his name for the man's daughter. The man accepted, despite the trembling fool Eric felt on the inside, and they were wed a fortnight later. 

When the ceremonies were over, when the flowers fell from her hair, they joined together in the bed he'd built during those long nights when sleep evaded him. After, Eric lay next to his wife and felt a strange peace come over him. Weak sunlight awoke him the next day, along with the sweet sound of Sarah's laughter, and it kept the cold at bay. He slept soundly every night they laid together.

After she was gone, the nights once again became familiar to Eric, the dark void of spirits comforting him. The only sleep he found was after a night of imbibing, and the only hunting he did was through the ever-dwindling collection of his belongings for hidden coin to purchase more drink. 

When the Queen had Eric hauled into the castle on the hill, he too was foggy with mead, furious and ready to lay hands on anyone foolish enough to come within arms-reach of him. He agreed to venture into the dark forest because he had no fear, and because a slender thread of hope that the Queen could bring beloved Sarah back was the only light that penetrated the haze of his exhaustive rage. 

The girl wasn't a challenge for him to track. She was fearful and her trail was obvious in her haste to escape. The woods closed around Eric like a familiar cloak, and he came upon the girl shortly. 

Her hair, tumbling down her back, was dark like Sarah's and her spirit was the same, glinting in eyes fierce and proud. It was what caught Eric, gave him pause to turn her over to the Queen's wretched brother. It took but a moment of threat for the sniveling fool to admit to Eric that his sister would never bring Sarah back, and the blinding anger propelled him with the girl deeper into the forest.

Her courage caused him to offer his escort to the Duke's keep, Snow's calm soothing Eric despite the twisted attack on the village, the hatred threatening to consume him after tearing Finn asunder. He was grateful when William ventured forth, adding to their small band, allowing him the space to wallow in the raw ache of betrayal he felt learning the truth of Sarah's end.

Exhaustion bettered him in the birch forest, and the guilt still soured in Eric's belly when he remembered that while he succumbed to sleep cloaked against the bitter cold, Snow was poisoned by Ravenna. 

No, now Eric keeps watch at night, his ax braced over his hip. Despite the peace that has infused the land with sunlight again, the gentle rule of a queen who loves her subjects and the country they live in with a whole heart, he still paces the corridors for threats. 

Keeping vigil over her now provides slight comfort for the endless night when he thought Snow gone too, abandoning him again to the shroud of drunken oblivion he felt after Sarah was taken from him. He grimaces now to remember the words he spoke to Snow, the useless and empty heart he laid bare for her in exchange for a single, sorrow-laden kiss.

Encircling the rooms where she sleeps, convinced that nothing escapes his watch for the moment, Eric rests for a moment against the stone wall. He unwraps the bread and meat he took from the kitchens, filling his belly quickly. The door opposite creaks and his hand goes to his hip, unfurling the blade, the cloth wrapping his meal dropping forgotten to the ground. 

A slight form slips through the cracked opening and Eric holds his breath just long enough to identify her before he presses himself back into the wall. 

Her wrapper flows over her night clothes when Snow strides purposefully across the wide hall to halt abruptly before him. 

"If I disturbed you, my lady, please accept my..." 

Snow rises up to her toes, pressing one cool hand against Eric's lips, the other closing around his wrist. 

She silently leads him across the threshold of her chambers, shutting the massive door firmly behind them. 

"My lord, have you an aversion to me?"

Eric, perplexed by the entire encounter and still fazed by the title of lord, much less his queen - Snow - addressing him as such, mutely shakes his head. 

"Night after night, you keep watch outside my door, and when the light breaks, you return to the stables, the armory, the town until the sun falls again. You refuse meals with the court, instead breaking your fast in the hall alone. Above all, you never, ever sleep." Snow's fingertips glide over the hand still clutching his weapon and eases beneath it.

"I'd ensure your safety, my queen." 

Snow's hands make quick work of the buckle keeping his ax close and the steel falls to the tapestry beneath their feet and his outer clothes follow. She leads him to one of the chaises and gently guides him down. Sinking to the floor, Snow pulls his boots from him and he is awed by his inability to stop her. 

"It is apparent to me that you value my safety and rest above your own, my lord." Snow laces her fingers through Eric's and tugs him to the bed. Her strength is quiet but fierce as she gives him a push. He tumbles into the fine linens, the soft tick beneath him giving way to his body. 

Eric fears for what might occur next, but his thrumming heart is relieved when Snow simply places a cushion beneath his head and settles beside him. Her legs are drawn up beneath her gown and her hair tumbles free over her shoulder. 

"Rest, Eric."

His name on her lips is what breaks him from the stupor that's overcome him. 

"What of your rest, my lady?" 

Her hand glances lightly over his brow, down his jaw and across his arm. It's not indecent the way she touches him, but it's familiar and would never occur in the vicinity of her subjects. Snow's voice is quiet. 

"In a tower, I slept my years away, waiting for the day I could be free. I've respite enough for three lifetimes." 

She retraces the path her fingers took many times, and with each passing stroke of her hands on his skin, Eric feels a little of the exhaustion slip away. 

He awakens the next day to the summer sun on his skin, bright and warm. Shifting in the unfamiliar bed, his eyes meet Snow's and her laughter is sweet beside him.

**Author's Note:**

> With the original prompt in the summary, there may or may not have also been a request for the Huntsman to eat a sandwich. Thanks for the prompt and the checks on the finished product!
> 
> Thank *you* for reading!!


End file.
